AUSTIN — A conservative student group at the University of Texas at Austin is threatening the school with legal action after the administration condemned the club's "affirmative action bake sale" as "inflammatory and demeaning."

"If any punitive action is taken against the Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at The University of Texas at Austin [YCT-UT] or our members on account of their speech, we will take legal action against the university and all persons involved for deprivation of civil rights," the club said in a letter sent to campus President Greg Fenves on Tuesday. "Any policies adopted or embraced by the university that infringe upon those rights will be fought in court, in the Legislature, and on campus."

The university responded late Tuesday, saying it "does not and will not take any punitive action against an organization or its members for exercising their constitutional right to free speech."

"The right to freely express views is vital to the health of our university even if some find that expression offensive or disrespectful. For this reason, UT will continue to protect students and student organizations in the exercise of their free speech rights," spokesman J.B. Bird told The Dallas Morning News. "The 'bake sale' event last week was an example of the exercise of free speech. No students or organizations will be punished for that display."

Last week, YCT-UT held an "affirmative action bake sale" offering cookies at different prices based on the race and sex of the buyer. A cookie cost $1.50 for Asian males, $1 for white males and 50 cents for African-American and Hispanic males. Cookies for American Indians of both genders were free of charge.

The event drew immediate criticism from the university. The small club was quickly surrounded by hundreds of angry students, who peppered the members with questions about the history of slavery, racism and affirmative action and chanted "check your privilege" and "racists go home."

The event ended peacefully, with the last remaining club members driven from their bake sale location after more than an hour of often heated debate with the crowd.

In its letter to Fenves, YCT-UT Chairman Vidal Castañeda said university employees have called for the club to be disbanded or its members punished, and "some have gone as far as to call for the development of a 'hate crime policy' that would punish students for holding similar demonstrations in the future."

Protesters gathered at the University of Texas West Mall to protest a planned mock roundup of illegal immigrants held by the Young Conservatives of Texas in Austin in 2005. The roundup did not take place. A similar event was held at the University of North Texas. The conservative group said that the demonstration was intended to call attention to the problems of illegal immigration and not an attack on race.

((File 2005/The Associated Press))

Bird said the university would continue to protect the free speech of all students, including who put on and opposed the bake sale.

"Other members of the university community also exercised their free speech rights by protesting the event, which was offensive to many members of the community and out of line with UT's values," said Bird. "More speech is the answer to speech some find offensive. This is often the nature of discussions on a university campus."

YCT-UT has come under fire in the past for similarly controversial events.

In 2013, they held a nearly identical bake sale, which the university also condemned. And in 2005 and 2013, they planned to host a "catch an illegal immigrant" day, on which students could win gift cards by rounding up YCT-UT club members who sported "illegal immigrant" signs. The 2005 event did not take place, and the 2013 event was canceled.

UT-Austin has been at the forefront of the fight to uphold affirmative active in college admissions. Just this year, it won a years-long legal battle against a white female student who sued after she was denied admission to the flagship university.

She said she wasn't accepted because of the school's "holistic" admissions criteria, which look at students' various characteristics, including race. The suit went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices upheld the constitutionality of UT-Austin's admissions policy.